Control cards for statistical machines



Patented May 26, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CONTROL CARDS FOR STATISTICAL MACHINES Raymond Louis Andre Valtat, Paris, France, as-

signor to International Business Machines Gorporation, New York, N. Y.,- a corporation of New York Application October so, 1935, Serial No. 47,357

2 Claims.

This invention relates to control cards for statistical machines and various types of calculating machines such as tabulating and record sorting machines. Records containing data in the form of perforations are run through the machines and the machines are caused to perform certain operations such as the sorting of the records or the printing, or accumulating of data contained on the records. The location of 10 perforations arranged in columns or otherwise determines the value of the perforations and the machines are controlled in accordance with the location of the perforations. Records for use in such machines must be carefully prepared so that the perforations are accurately located and the stock from which the records are made must be of unusually high grade in order that the control of the records upon the machines will be ac-' curate to a high degree. In this connection; the

20 thickness as the feeding mechanism which comprises a card picker must pick one card at a time from the supply stack. Also the card is fed through a throat or slot which is wider than the thickness of. one card but narrower than the thickness of two cards together, so that only one card at a time can be fed through. Also the 'stock y from which the cards are made must be such that the eflfects of atmospheric conditions are min- 30 imized. In other words, the dampness of the atmosphere, must not cause the cards to swell or become soft along their edges and thus cause the cards to stick in the throat or become mutilated by either the throat or the feed'picker. Also the ing atmospheric conditions. The stock must also be of such quality that the cards can be handled and fed through the machines a large number of times without being destroyed or so mutilated andare counteracted by each other so that the' record cards remain flat at all times and do not warp under the conditions that normally cause warping of ordinary record cards.

record cards must be of substantially uniform' stock must be such that it will not warp'in =vary- The present application is a continuationin I part of the said pending application.

Heretofore, cards for use in automatic statistical machines have been made from special high grade materials very carefully selected and treated with special care in order to produce the best possible material for controlling statistical machines.

One of the methods of sensing the perforations in order to control the operations of the machines is to resiliently press a large number of feeler pins against the surface of the card, so that a separate pin will engage each index point or per-' foration position on the record card. Wherever a perforation appears at one of the index points, the particular pin will pass through the card and will act to cause a corresponding entry to be made in the machine. Wherever perforations do not appear at the index points, the pins sensing those points are held back and have no effect upon the operation of the machine.

Another method commonly employed for sensing the perforations comprises running the cards between a row of electric brushes on one side and an electric contact plate or roller on the other. The brushes are made of strands of fine wire andv a separate brush is associated with each column on the record card. Sensing takes place while the card is in motion. As the card passes under the brushes, wherever a perforation appears in -one of the columns, the brush associated with that column will reach through-the perforation and engage the contact plate on the other'side, --thi1's closing a vcontrol electric circuitthrough' a magnet or relay to control the operation of the machine. The location of the perforation in the qcolumn represents the value of the entry and also determines the time in the card feeding cycle at which the circuit is closed, and the time at which the circuit is closed determines the 40 control upon the machine. In other words, it determines the value to be added in the accumulating devices or to be printed upon a report sheet.

In the manufacturing of paper, minute particles of foreign substances in the raw materials find their way into the surface of the paper stock and interfere with the accurate operation of the machines under control of the record cards made from such stock. Among these foreign substances are what are called conducting specks. These specksmay be minute particles of carbon or'coal dust, or metallic or other substances which are capable of acting as conductors for electric current.

. other, an electric circuit is surface of the paper in the when the specks reach from one surface of the record card to the other, the electric brushes engaging the surfaces of the card wipe over the specks which also engage the contact plate on the opposite side and this causes closure of the control circuit in the same manner as where the brush reaches through a perforation and engages the contact plate. Thus, a carbon speck in the cards will cause an incorrect entry to be made in the machine. Other foreign substances which find their way into the paper making material produce what are called slime spots. Sometimes these spots are produced by minute fish eggs in the water drawn from the rivers and used in the preparation of the pulp. These slime spots which,

while they may not act as conductors of electric current, form weak spots in the cards so that the electric brushes in rubbing over the surfaces of the cards, open perforations through the cards and thus efiect wrong entries in the record which thereafter produce incorrect operations of the machines. Also in the machines where the record cards are sensed by feeler pins pressing against the cards, the slime spots are apt to give way and permit the pin to pass through and this too causes the machine to operate incorrectly.

In order to overcome these difficulties, the paper stock used in the production of record cards for controlling statistical machines must be made from carefully selected pulp wood which, in turn,

must be kept clean from the forest to the mill so as to be free from foreign particles, and specially filtered or otherwise purified water must be used to prepare the pulp. Also the buildings and room in which the paper is being made must be so controlled as to prevent coal dust, or railroad locomotive or mill cinders from drifting into contact with the pulp material before or during the process of forming the paper.

. Heretofore, only one paper mill throughout the entire world has been able to produce paper suitable for use in these machines. But even this paper, in spite of all care used in its preparation contains a certain percentage of foreign sub-' stances which produce conducting specks and slime spots so that it is tion of the record cards to control the machines, that the paper from which the cards are made be tested very carefully over its entire surface to detect specks or other defectiwe of testing the paper is to draw the stock off its roll and run it between a metallic roller on one side and a large number of wire stranded electric brushes on the opposite side, so that the wire brushes scrape over the entire surface of the paper stock. Thus, if a carbon speck passes between the brushes on one side and the metallic roller on the closed through a relay which, in turn, controls the operation of devices for marking the paper stock in the area of the carbon speck or other defective spot, so that when the paper stock is later cut into card sizes and printed, these marked'cards can then be removed from the stacks of finished cards. One method of marking the defective stock is to slit the paper as it is run through the testing machine and another method is to produce a colored ink stripe along the testing machine. The defective cards which are later cut from the stock in the printing machines are thus marked and may be taken out by operators. If, defective cards reach the users of the machines, the operators of the punching machines will observe them durin the punching operations and remove them.

Even'all the precaution taken to produce stock necessary in the preparaspots. One method of the highestquality and of detecting defective spots which may appear in the high grade stock, carbon specks may sometimes be covered by a few pulp fibres so that as the testing brushes pass over the surface of the paper they do" not engage the specks and therefore the specks-pass on without being detected and such stock then goes into the production of record cards. After these cards have been passed through the statistical machines several times, the sensing brushes may remove a few pulp fibres from the carbon speck and thus expose the latter so thatthereafter the speck will act as a conductor and will cause incorrect operation of the machines. I The principal object'of the present invention is to produce a record card in which defective spots will have no effect upon the operation of the machines. In accordance with the present invention, the cards are produced from paper stock which is made up by adhesively securing two thinner strips of paper together in accordance with the carbon specks or slime of paper may be employed and even then the cards produced are vastly superior to the cards now produced with the greater care described.

Referring to the drawing:

Fig. 1 is-a plan view of a strip of paper from which the cards are to be cut.

Fig. 2 is an edge view of the card material shown in Fig. 1. s v

Fig. 3 illustrates the manner in which the strips of paper are glued together to form the card stock.

Fig. 4 illustrates a finished record card printed and punched ready to use to control the operations of statistical machines.

Fig. 5 represents a control in a calculating machine.

In Figs. 1 and 2, the card stock I is made up of two strips of paper 2 and 3 glued together by adhesive 4. As shown in Fig. 3, the two portions 2 and 3 are preferably produced from a single .wider strip III which is siitted'through'the middle bya cutter I I, after which the strips pass under a device I2 which applies adhesive 4 to the corresponding faces of the two strips 2 and I. The strips then pass into cooperation with guide rollers I3 and I4 which serve to fold the two strips over upon each other. The composite strip is then run between rollers l5 and it which press the sheets together. Ihe rollers I6 may be heated to dry the material as it passes through.

card being sensed reels ready for the printing press where the desired printing of numbers and other information and cutting into card sizes is effected.

Fig. 4 shows a complete card I! with control perforations I! located in the various columns at different index positions to represent different values. These perforations serve to control the operation of the calculating or other machines.

As the control card passes between the sensing brush I! (Fig. 5) and the contact roller 20, it will readily be seen that when one of the perforations ll passes between the brush i9 and contact roller III, a circuit will be closed through the source 21, and operating magnet or relay 2!.

The euergization of this magnet will control the operation of the machine according to the location of the perforation.

It will readily be seen that if a speck of carbon dust 23 (Fig. 4) is embedded in the control card and exposed at both surfaces thereof, the brush I 9 will contact the speck on the upper surface while the roller 20 will contact it on the lower surface and the operating circuit will be closed through the magnet 22. If the carbon speck is located as shown in Fig; 4, somewhere between the index positions 5 and 6, the machine will be caused; to accumulate the value 5 or 6, and

will also be caused to print one or the other of these values.

Where the card is made up of two sheets of paper pasted together in accordance with the present invention, the specks such as that shown at 23 which may appear in either of the strips 2 or 3 will be covered by the other sheet and will thus be prevented from serving as conductors between the brush l9 and roller 20.

A slime spot is indicated at 24 (Fig. 4) at the index position representing the value 1. It will readily be seen that as the control cardis passing under the brush I9 this weakened spotis apt to loosen and eventually form a hole through the card after several passages through the machine, so that thereafter the brush I 9 will close a contact at this point and cause erroneous operation of the machine. Also where the control cardis sensed by feeler pins pressing against the card at the index point positions, the slime spot is apt to give way and permit the pin to press through and cause the machine to receive an erroneous entry.

At 25 a faint speck is indicated to represent a conducting particle covered by pulp fibres. On passing through a testing machine having a row I 9 and a conspeck will not fibres. Paper tact roller similar to roller 20, the be detected due to the layer of pulp dering said defective areas ineffective in the constock having these hidden specks will thus eventually find their way into the statistical machines as control cards and the brushes IS in such Inachines will eventually scrape the pulp fibres off the hidden speck and thereafter close the control circuit between the brushes I 9 and contact roller 20 to bring about energization of the control magnet 22.

It will be seen that by pasting two thin sheets of stock 2 and 3 together to produce the material for the completed control card [1, all of these defective spots are rendered harmless.

While there has been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a single modification, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those s ed in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

. 1. A control element having value representing perforations for controlling statistical machines and comprising a plurality of sheets adhesively united so that defective areas in one of the component sheets are covered by non-defective areas of another of the sheets, thereby rentrol of the operation ofthe machines.

2. A control card having value designations for controlling statistical machines and composed of two or more rigidly united sheets superimposed to cause a defective area of one component sheet i which may interfere with control efiectiveness of said value designation to be covered and thereby rendered harmless by a non-defective area of another of the component sheets.

RAYMOND LOUIS ANDRE VALTAT. 

